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I am always surprised at how unpopular celeriac is as a vegetable — and it’s not because people don’t like it, but rather because they forget about it, or maybe don’t know what to do with it. As it’s just come into season, if there was ever a time to start cooking with this delicious winter vegetable, it’s now.
Celeriac has a subtle, celery-like flavour with nutty overtones. You can do a lot with it: it’s fantastic cooked and mashed with lots of butter and freshly ground black pepper, or sliced and layered with potatoes in a gratin. It goes really well alongside a crab cake. It’s also delicious as a remoulade — just coarsely grate celeriac and apple, mix them with crème fraîche, lemon, Dijon mustard and flat-leaf parsley.
Still, my favourite way to eat it is as a soup, and the addition of the sage and hazelnut pesto adds delicious crunchy texture and earthy flavours. You can make it a few days ahead and it freezes really well, so double the recipe when you’re making it, leaving a batch for a lazy day. I sometimes add a crumble of crispy smoky pancetta on top with the sage and hazelnut pesto, which is just so good.
Celeriac soup with sage and hazelnut pesto
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 35 mins
Serve with: Waitrose White Burgundy, £9.49
Ingredients
- 50g butter
- 1 celeriac, peeled and chopped
- 1 stalk of celery, chopped
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped
- 75g hazelnuts
- 1 litre vegetable stock
- 100ml crème fraîche
- Sea salt, freshly ground black pepper
For the sage and hazelnut topping
- 75g hazelnuts, crushed
- 2 tablespoons fresh sage
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin
- olive oil
Method
1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir in the chopped celeriac, celery, onion, and 75g of the hazelnuts. Season with salt and pepper. Stir well, lower the heat, cover using the foil of your butter wrapper, then pop the lid back on and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
2. Next, make pesto. Start by toasting the hazelnuts for three minutes in a dry pan over a high heat to release all the oils and the flavour. Then finely chop the fresh sage and add to the olive oil. To crush the hazelnuts, place them on one side of a tea towel, then cover with the other side and bash with a rolling pin. Once crushed, add them to the olive oil and sage. Mix well and set aside.
3. Add the stock to the vegetables that have sweated down and cook for 15 minutes.
4. Pour the cooked vegetables, stock and hazelnuts into a food processor and blend until smooth. Then put the soup back over a low heat, stir in the crème fraîche and heat it through for two minutes.
5. To serve, drizzle the sage and hazelnut pesto on top.
Follow Clodagh on Instagram at @clodaghmckenna.
